Re: Why we fight (there was an old B&W movie by that name IIRC)

Tomb wrote:

> Alan (very thoughtfully, I thought) said:
> What keeps soldiers at the sharp end from making themselves scarce
when
> the whizzbangs start to fly? Firstly, there's the fear of letting down
> your mates. But also, there's tradition: our ancestors (even if they
> weren't blood relations) managed to do (insert heroic deed here) so we
> have the capability to do the same. So we *can* overcome our fear. And
> not merely that, but tear those enemy bastards limb from limb and rip
> their throats out with our teeth if neccessary.
>
> [Tomb] You develop, I believe, a very low opinion of the value of the
> other guys life when you realize he's willing to kill you. You become
> much more ready to kill him first at that point. This is part of the
> demonization/objectification training that most military institutions
> use, but it is also human nature. If you've gotta have fight or flight
> hormones raging, from a win or die situation perspective, you want the
> fight hormones going for your unit members.
>

Soldiers fight because that is what their training tells them to do. 
They
will continue to fight until the results of applying their training
apparently fail.  If they cannot run away and are not given time to
think,
they will keep applying their training until they are dead.  Esprit de
corps
and regimental history (plus a good dose of in-your-face noncoms) get
them
to the fight and blind panic will keep them there, but only so long as
they
do not realise that following orders is not likely to keep them alive.

With adrenalin, everything that you do well, you can do even better, but
anything that you are not good at becomes almost impossible.  The high
stress causes you to viciously prune your decision tree, so that you
respond
to stimuli faster.  If you are already good at shooting and following
orders, you become better.  You run when fighting is dropped from the
decision tree.	You will shoot your fellow man because he is far away
and
the noncom is right next to you.  If you are not under stress, and noone
is